Ellis is back next week!

Ellis meets The Bash Street Kids!

I'm pleased to say that not one but two of my Ellis's Great Escapes strips will be in the Beano next week! 

This is the first time I've had anything in the comic since my series of Ellis strips ended in December, although they've kept a few in stock since then. I had no idea when they'd be used so it's good that two will be in print next week.

Why now? Well, Ellis the Elephant also makes an appearance in the Dennis and Gnasher strip in that issue (drawn by Nigel Parkinson) so I guess it was the right time. There are also a couple of other Ellis strips in stock but I don't know when they'll be used. 

Ellis even appears on the cover (also drawn by Nigel Parkinson) so this is the issue to look out for when it arrives in the shops next Wednesday, 5th May! 

Cover by Nigel Parkinson.

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When Pigs Fly! (2013)

A few years ago The Beano kept me busy not only with strips but also the occasional activity page. Here's one I did in 2013 called When Pigs Fly! I was really pleased with this one because not only did it give me another opportunity to draw Dennis the Menace it was also totally daft, - and we all know the daftest comics make the best comics! 

Currently in print...

A quick plug for the comics / mags currently on sale that I did some work for:

Buster and Gums strips for the Cor!! Buster Easter Special.

https://treasuryofbritishcomics.com/catalogue/humour/RCS2052

The Daft Dimension mini-strip for Doctor Who Magazine.

https://doctorwhomagazine.com/

Ellis's Great Escapes for The Beano.

https://shop.beano.com/beano-comic-subscription

Sgt.Shouty for The77.

https://getmycomics.com/The77

Postman Prat for The Dandy Summer Special.

https://www.dcthomsonshop.co.uk/dandy-summer-special-2020

Postman Prat and Keyhole Kate for The Dandy Annual 2021.

https://www.dcthomsonshop.co.uk/the-dandy-annual-2021

Lord Snooty mini-strips for The Beano Annual 2021.

https://www.dcthomsonshop.co.uk/beano-annual-2021

Coming up:
Specky Hector, Comic Collector mini-strip for the Battle Special.

https://treasuryofbritishcomics.com/catalogue/RCS2063

(It sounds like I've been busy but the annual and special strips were drawn long before the pandemic.)

Ellis is back today!

 

I had a pleasant surprise today to find that my strip Ellis's Great Escapes is back in the Beano this week! (I expected it to return mid-September.) It feels good to be part of the Beano community again after a long and stressful summer. 

I believe the strip will run until sometime in December. I'm currently working on the ones for November anyway. 

Here's a glimpse of my original art for this week's strip... 

The Beano No.4051 is in the shops now! 36 full colour pages for £2.75. 

Cover art by Laura Howell.

Ellis is back on the drawing board

 

As you will have noticed, my Beano strip Ellis' Great Escapes was interrupted at the start of the lockdown when the comic dropped all the mini strips to replace them with activity pages to keep kids occupied during the time off school. It was quite a blow at an already stressful time, but the mini-strips will be returning in September and Ellis will be back for another run! 

I'm very pleased to be working for the Beano again after this long and difficult summer. I think this pandemic has affected everyone's mental health to various degrees but hopefully we can emerge as better people. Using our creative imaginations is a good distraction, as is reading the end product, so I hope readers will enjoy the escapism of Ellis' Great Escapes when it returns next month!

RASHER returns for a guest spot!

 

This was a pleasant surprise today. Back in February I was commissioned to write/draw a one-off Rasher strip for the Beano. In the end it wasn't used due to lack of space, but it's turned up in the latest issue! 

As you know, I've drawn three (or is it four) series of Rasher over the years and he's one of my favourite Beano characters to script and illustrate. I've no idea if he'll ever be back on a regular basis but you'll get to see one new Rasher strip in the Beano No.4048, in the shops this Wednesday 12th August. Here's the cover to look out for...

Cover art by Nigel Parkinson and the Beano design team.

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Ivy the Terrible (Beano, 2014)

Being asked to draw a classic strip like Ivy the Terrible was a great privilege as it had originally been drawn by the late great Robert Nixon. I was asked not to deviate from his style too much, but that wasn't difficult as he'd been one of my many influences anyway. 

The thing about "ghosting" an art style is that it immediately becomes absorbed into your own style, so little quirks and techniques become evident. I don't know if my style is distinctive (you can't always tell if it is yourself) but I know there's little bits of various artists in there from Leo Baxendale, Ken Reid, and Roy Wilson, to Jack Oliver, Tom Paterson, and Bob Nixon and more. 

These two Ivy the Terrible strips appeared in The Beano issues dated 4th October and 11th October 2014. Scripts by John Anderson (who's now the Beano editor) and art and colours by me. 

I've been working in comics now for 37 years and I'll delve into the archive and show some more old work soon!

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Just My Cup of Tea!

Several weeks ago I was commissioned to draw the Bash Street Kids for an activity page called Just My Cup of Tea in the Beano. The printed version will be in today's issue but I thought you might like to see a photo of my original art (above). I always enjoy drawing these classic characters and was pleased with this little job. 

The original is A3 in width, if you were wondering, twice the size of the published piece. I nearly always work "twice up" because it's easier to put in detail, and it's the way all comics used to be drawn until around the 1970s or so.

Here's the printed version. The idea is it's a prank for readers to stick the cut-out snouts to the bottom of mugs so it looks like their friends / family have animal snouts. (A fun idea that the Beano office came up with.) Thanks to Peter Gray for the photo below as my issue hasn't arrived yet. 

Beano No.4031, out today! 

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Pets theme BEANO sees the return of Pup Parade for one week

With it being National Pet Month the Beano is giving next week's issue a pet theme, bringing back some old favourites for one week only including a special full page Pup Parade story! (This one was actually a previously unpublished page I did back in 2016 so I'm glad it'll finally see print.) 

There's also another episode from me of Ellis's Great Escapes! How will he escape this week? 

Don't miss the Beano No.4030, on sale Wednesday 8th April. You can subscribe, or buy the digital edition, from the Beano website at this link:
https://www.beano.com/subscribe

Ellis is only having a short run in the Beano and I'm not sure what the future holds (I know, none of us do at present) so if you're a reader remember to let them know which strips you like. 

NOTE: I'd previously announced that Rasher would be in this week's issue, as I'd been commissioned to do a new one-off featuring him, but unfortunately it looks like there wasn't room in the end. Hopefully it'll appear in a future issue.

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In print (and digital) this week...

Hello everyone. How are you doing? I hope you and your families and friends are all bearing up in these worrying times. I thought I'd let you know what I have in print this week. Firstly, on Wednesday (1st April, no foolin') there's another one of Ellis's Great Escapes in the Beano No.4029.... then, the next day, on Thursday 2nd April we journey to The Daft Dimension again in Doctor Who Magazine No.550! 

Now that comic shops and many branches of WH Smith are closed you might find it difficult to get the comics but for individual print issues of the Beano you could try Newsstand at this link...
https://www.newsstand.co.uk/106-General-Magazines/60-Subscribe-to-BEANO-Magazine-Subscription.aspx

...or take out a subscription for future issues in print or digital at this link:
https://www.beano.com/subscribe

For Doctor Who Magazine you can buy individual issues, subscribe, or buy the digital version all at this link:
https://doctorwhomagazine.com

Stay at home and stay safe... and escape into comics, books, music, films, or whatever helps you through this. 

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Ellis will return!

There's no Ellis's Great Escape strip in the Beano next week, but he will be back the following week. He'll skip a few other upcoming issues too. These days the Beano tends to shuffle the mini-strips, or leave them out altogether if the main stories are longer, so I won't be in every week unfortunately. 

I will have three strips in an upcoming issue though and I'll tell you about those in a few weeks. 

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Preview of the next ELLIS strip

Here's a quick look at one panel from the next Ellis's Great Escapes strip. You can see the full version in the Beano this coming Wednesday.

The Beano is still the cheapest comic in the shops but remember you can subscribe and each issue will be even cheaper! Full details at this link:
https://www.beano.com/subscribe

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Preview: Next week's ELLIS strip

The second episode of Ellis's Great Escapes is in the Beano next week so I thought I'd give you an advance preview today! Here's the first panel, before the dialogue was added. (The dialogue was already written of course, in my script, but it's not applied to the page until I send the art to the Beano office.)

See the full story in the Beano No.4026, on sale Wednesday 11th March!  

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New! ELLIS'S GREAT ESCAPES begins in the BEANO next week!

As subscribers should be receiving their latest Beano comics today I think it's safe to reveal that my new series for the comic is Ellis's Great Escapes! 

Ellis is an elephant in Beanotown Zoo, but no zoo can contain Ellis for long and his favourite thing is finding ways to escape! Every week Ellis will try to outsmart the zookeeper Terry Tuff and make a bid for freedom, using whatever means necessary... the funnier the better! 

Ellis the escaping elephant is a relatively new character who's only been around for a few years. I believe he may have originated from the Dennis and Gnasher cartoon, but he's popped up in the comic a few times as part of the Dennis and Gnasher story. As far as I know he's never had his own series before so I'm honoured to be the first writer/artist to bring his adventures to the Beano! 

The series of half page stories of Ellis's Great Escapes begins in the Beano No.4025, on sale Wednesday 4th March from all good newsagents and supermarkets, and will appear in most issues for a while thereafter. 

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Final whistle for Pup Parade?

The latest series of Pup Parade comes to a close in the next issue of The Beano (No.4024), which goes on sale Wednesday 26th February. 

It's not quite the end though, because there'll be a one-off episode in the comic in April. A previously unpublished story! 

I've really enjoyed doing Pup Parade again. This was my third series I think. I hope they'll be back for another full series one day. I've no time to miss them though because I'm busy working on the replacement strip and the first episode of that begins in Beano No.4025! Who does it feature? Well, it's a Beano character I've never drawn before. I'm not even sure he's had his own strip before... and you'll find out who it is soon! 

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In next week's BEANO...

Here's an advance peek at my next Pup Parade strip. This time the spotlight is on Sniffy! What's he up to? Find out when you buy the Beano No.4023 on Wednesday 19th February! 

(In case you hadn't guessed, the large areas at the top and bottom right will be where the dialogue balloons will go. The composition will look more balanced then.) 

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Snooty!

Back in September The Beano commissioned me to do several drawings of their characters to be used in various places. One of those drawings, Lord Snooty, appears in next week's Beano, hosting the reader's pages. 

Presumably the other drawings will appear at some point. I did one for each of the Bash Street Dogs plus Biffo and his pal Buster. (Yes, D.C. Thomson's version of Buster in the beret, not the cloth-capped one owned by Rebellion that I've just drawn for the Cor!! Buster Easter Special. Good job I didn't get them confused!)

In case you're wondering, no, Lord Snooty isn't the new strip I'm doing that will replace Pup Parade in March. My new strip features a character I'd never drawn before, but I did do a series of Lord Snooty mini-strips for the Beano a few years ago... and I've done a few more for the Beano Annual 2021, which will be out in August of this year. 

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Remember BANANAGIRL?

Pup Parade won't be in next week's Beano because the comic has a special focus on Bananaman to celebrate the character's 40th anniversary. (He first appeared in Nutty No.1 in 1980.) That made me wonder... do any of you remember Bananagirl? 

Bananagirl was the cousin of Bananaman and was introduced as a new pupil in my Super School strip which began in the Beano back in 2008. Bananagirl was the idea of then-editor Alan Digby, and Ian McCloughlin wrote the script. (Iain wrote most of the Super School stories.) She never appeared in a "civilian" identity and seemed to be Bananagirl permanently in order too fit in with the theme of the strip being about superhero kids learning the ropes. She had similar powers to her cousin, being able to fly and some super strength, although she seemed to be smarter than Bananaman.

Super School ended in 2011 and haven't been seen since, nor has Bananagirl. Will she ever return? No idea, but Beano characters often turn up when you least expect them, even decades later (in the case of Big Eggo!) so maybe one day...!

By the way, I've never drawn Bananaman for a comic but I did do a sketch of him last year at a very breezy Comics Salopia last summer in Shrewsbury. Neil Kenny videoed it for the Blast Process YouTube page. Click on the link to see it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ujzz7mc4eoc

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Preview of BEANO No.4021

Sometimes a piece of artwork turns out exactly how you wanted to, and I was pleased with this panel from next week's Pup Parade strip in Beano No.4021. Bones' face conveys the expression of a happy dog, and who doesn't like to see a dog that's happy?

I also did the artwork for a puzzle page in next week's issue, which meant I got to draw these Bash Street Kids...

...which I then arranged into a grid format for the Bash Street Crush page. The skilled Beano designers added the slick looking phone and the brick wall, logo etc. 

Beano No.4021 will be in the shops on Wednesday 5th February, and this is the cover to look out for by Nigel Parkinson and the Beano design team...

Pup Parade will skip issue 4022 as it's a Bananaman special (celebrating 40 years of the character) but they'll be back in issue 4023, ending in 4024, to make way for my new strip starting in No.4025! More news on that in a few weeks! 

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Pencils and Inks: IVY THE TERRIBLE (Beano, 2008)

Click on the image to see it larger.

I drew a new series of Ivy the Terrible in 2014 for The Beano, and another one a few years later, but before that the Beano tested me with a one-off Ivy strip in 2008. 

I had to email in pencils for approval first so as I had it on file I thought I'd show you the page here, compared to my finished inked version. (Lettering and colouring was added by the Beano staff. These days we colour our own strips.)

Can't remember which issue it was published in but it was sometime in 2008. Anyway, it eventually led to me being commissioned to draw the strip on a regular basis, even though it took a few years!

I don't recall who wrote the script. Possibly Iain McCloughlin, or maybe even editor Alan Digby himself. (Iain was the writer on the series I did.) The plot is basically about Ivy learning to dress herself for nursery school. 

Ivy the Terrible was originally created by Alan Digby and Robert Nixon in 1985, based on Alan's young daughter. She was a great character to draw and I hope the Beano revives her again one day. 

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